Is Apple on the brink of "repeating the mistakes of the Mac era"?

0.phoneArena
28 Nov 2012, 16:36posted on

We have made no bones about it, we're a little soured on the notion of analysts, because they tend to just tell us stuff that we already know. But, this time around, we're kind of interested, because this prediction, while something we've heard (and said ourselves), is very detailed as to why Apple may be heading for a repeat of "the mistakes of the Mac era"...

44.MeoCao (unregistered)

I think Apple's trouble is not about integrated services but about their ambition to monopolize mobile hardware with too few choices. They should have offered as many choices as possible like sizes, colors, design styles, carriers...

Instead they offered just 1 model of iPhones and 1 model (now 2) of iPads and 1 carrier in 4 or 5 years.

This can maximize their profits but they have put themselves on a losing course.

Android with its huge number of options finally overwhelmed iPhone, iPad will follow suit.

Another oppotunity missed for Apple, and this may be their final chance.

I'd like Apple to remain Android's strong little brother, because competition does great things to consumers, such as the release of the great Nexus 10, or the iPad4 for that matter, which may be the least profitable Apple mobile device, meaning you get great bang for your buck.

The problem Apple is facing is that it depends on it's elitist status, but with scratch-gate and Android, Windows improvements, do you still get the best device for that crazy price tag? That's the billion dollar question, as the dream scenario of having hard core fanatics can turn into a nightmare if they take the whole bunch to a different "best" company.

At the end of the day, the iPad may see Apple through even if iPhone falls behind, but serious profit cut must come because frankly, their most recent products don't look all that fancy with the aggressively priced Nexuses and Lumias making noise.

PC, Tablet, and smart phone are all merging the companies that releaize this will be the ones who succeed Google gets it, MS gets it and is making strides to get on top of it, Apple is getting pushed off the hill but hasn't fallen yet, Rim fell off the hill and still doesn't get it, Nokia fell of the hill and MS picked them up to buy them or throw them off the cliff, Samsung rides with who ever is on top, Sony is dusting themselves off and starting up the hill again, HTC is trying to be more like Apple and is slipping down the hill all for lack of removable battery and expandable micro sd card slot, LG is leaping over HTC as they slip, Motorola is quiety creeping up the hill, ect ect

Hey guys, believe me or not, I was and android fan the last 2 years( HTC HD, Google NExus, GAlaxy note I, HTC One S), and finally now I've adopted BB 9900, which for me is an awesome smart machine. Ok, some of us need more of business features, and less media function. But as an customer I'm sick of the all expectation that we permanently have from the soft, the screen, the new features of every piece of hardware they are issuing every year. We need a extended tool for communicating with our friends and partners, sharing information and finally have all the information we really need, NOT THE THINGS THEY WANT TO HAVE.
So, as I said I'm happy with my new BB and hope new OS 10 and the new premium handset to be a hit for RIM.
Respect !

Listen kid, the above mentioned comment "End of an era coming soon" includes the strength of millions of people.
So it means according to millions of people "End of an era coming soon"...!! Now bugger off :p

32.JeffdaBeat (unregistered)

That would explain why they sell so poorly. I'm not spending a dime on a new gaming console until they perfect virtual reality for the home based gamer (or someone finally releases a new Crimson Skies game - which ever comes first).

42.XPERIA-KNIGHT (unregistered)

you know what man? I got my ps3 slim, and the only other gaming platform im considering getting......or investing in for that matter, is my mobile phone! lol im seriously thinking about getting that android controller for my phone..... :)

I've been saying this for monthes!
They're great at marketing and everything, but if they lose they're trendy status, they'll plateau... and now that they've become "The Man", they're making all the same mistakes they did in the 80's/90's.
Cut margins, lower costs, open up development, treat consumers like intelligent people, and for god sake, stop trying to stiffle other people's innovation and get back to having some of your own.

Android is the cancer of Apple's dominance in its self-engineered paradigm. It's ever stronger end bigger everytime Apple tries to keep the pace that is doing now with breaking its own rules. Apple created Android and therefore there is little chance that they will keep high profit margins, because, software aside, hardware is shifting its center from iDevices to Android/Win8 concept, which is basically again on the road to the convergence with PC world - something Apple is trying to avoid all the time.

So, I think they should change their DNA (like they did last time with mobile revolution). Because it's precisely its current DNA that's causing Android metastasis.

I'm speaking metaphorically, but this way I say more truth than to say Google created it. The paradigm of mobile IT that revolutionized the industry is created by Apple, and everything Android accomplished in past couple of years thru its development is guided by the laws (competing and surpassing them) created by Apple. So, in a way, Android is the effect of Apple that is destined to destroy it. My comparison with cancer metastasis is not a coincidence - its exactly the same mechanism of domino effect and multiplicity.

Well said. The same can be said with (for example) Office for Windows and OpenOffice. Microsoft 'created' OpenOffice indirectly by charging way too much for their own product, thus generating a need or desire for someone to create something else who obviously decided that an option is better than no options at all. Factor in the price difference and we have a no brainer...especially for someone like me who doesn't require all the features the Windows version offers.

Did you mean to say the paradigm of mobile IT that revolutionized the industry is created by nokia? Because ever since the c5 and on those mobiles were developed by nokia before 2007, look up the history of MeeGo and symbian, you might learn a thing or two

Something like that. Every oppressive system generates its counter-movement through subversive signs. Android has clearly emerged from Apple's system by striking it where system was oppressed - for instance, openess, multiple choices etc. - but still in the same mobile paradigm. Without Apple, Android would perhaps exist but would be in a completely different form... like old BlackBerry perhaps...

Yes, but that's pretty irrelevant. It would be the same and without Andy Rubin's admiration for iOS, because in order to become what it is today, Android would had to take this form of touch-screen app-ecosystem based mobile computing, no matter who is in charge.

"Apple created Android", is not the correct statement to make, should be more like "Apple help created an enviroment for a OS like Android to grow".

because If Apple did not try to make their product so expensive and if Window Mobile was a better OS, Andy would had never been able to get in the door; but , because of these two companies trying to control the consumer with outrages prices and terrible OS, this is why Android has taken over the mobile world

I disagree. We were headed toward that direction anyway. As far as even the OS goes. Apple hasn't innovated anything at all.

Touch screen phones have been around way before the iPhone with the same exact same shape. Phones have had a dedicated HOME button. The iPhone didn't have a camera and video in it's initial release. iTunes was available for the MOTOROLA RAZR!!! Not the iPhone first. Windows had their mobile phone OS with widgets and their drop down menus. Let me not mention PALM. There were also numerous phones that were media based like the iPhone.

Everything and anything Apple has done was around already, but everything was sort of standard back in the day. Apple started patent wars and somehow tricked stupid judges into thinking they created everything.

The only thing Apple did was make a good product and had great advertising. They created this "If you own an iPhone" you're cool fad.

82.Aeires (unregistered)

I posted a very similar comment last year on Engadget and got lashed for it. There is such a thing as emerging technology that shapes things to come. Apple has an uncanny knack of using a lot of it first, but mostly to repackage things in their image. Android might have been different in some ways, but it still would have existed regardless of the iPhone or not.

This is true only if you are seeing thing separately, which makes no sense.

Apple didn't innovate technolgies and separate features, they were innovating products. No one was able to do this before Apple in such a way, despite the fact that they had all the ingredients. This "uninnovative" understanding of Apple is therefore the most common illusion in all Industry.

Your last sentence explains why you're unable to understand the matter correctly. Innovation is not change. Change is just change. Many people developed hatred towards Apple bacuse they learned this shallow and incorrect definition of innovation, and wanted to see change only for a change's sake.

On the other hand, they started reducing innovation to physical quanitities and superficial appearances. So it's perfectly logical that they have the illusion that everything now was in fact always here, and now some "greedy uninnovative Apple sues them".

Of course it wasn't here before Apple. Apple established the new order in IT/mobile world, and everyone else followed. Many were even copycats. And that has nothing to do with fanboyism. It's more like fanboysim on the othr side, by reducing the argument to absurdities and rejecting the true nature of innovation.

That's very twisted superficial view. Yes, all that stuff was invented before; home buttons, iTunes on the RAZR (you think Motorola invented that?), widgets and dropdown menus... BUT IT ALL SUCKED! That was the "standard" that Apple completely blew away.

True, once they showed everyone how it should be done, the copy cats took over. That's a tough act to follow but nobody has innovated anything past what Apple has done. Everything added to Android phones came from somewhere else too.

So youre saying it was there and copy cats took over? Makes sense at all? Re read that and realize how dumb that was.

Windows had an exceptional product with the Samsung Omnia and other phones.

Palm was extemely successful with their OS.

The Motorola Razr was one of the most succesful phones of all time. They worked together with Apple to make that happen. Should Motorola sue Apple for making a phone with iTunes? After all, Motorola had it first right?

Apple licensed iTunes to Motorola for that product. They didn't "have it first". There's no grounds for a suit. And yes, the copycats took over. There's a sharp dividing line between pre and post iPhone mobile devices. The big loser was RIM, which the Android prototypes looked like until the iPhone was announced. Back to the drawing board - or is it tracing paper?

You're probably one of those people who ridiculed the iPhone because it didn't have a keyboard. Now it's all "obvious" how to do it, eh?

It has already happened. Apple has no way to catch up with Android. The only way Apple can catch Android is to release killer hardware and I don't mean the iPhone 5. They need a Note 2 competitor. They need innovation. They need to stop releasing "s" models. They need to change iOS. The $200 price point is fine for iPhone 5 and I bet people are willing to pay $300 for a bigger iPhone.
The App ecosystem system and developers are there. They need to be more aggressive with their hardware. Apple cannot release another "s" model. What is left to add? NFC, wireless charging, faster processor? That's not enough against android.

Android is going to dominate apple no matter what. Android floods the market with phones while apple only releases once a year. There is no denying that apples market is going to go down. HTC, Samsung, lg, zte, haawei, pantech, Sony, ect ALL make android phones, the only manufacturer that makes Ios devices are Apple. Apple is playing a game that it just can't win.

Article is talking about the difference of market share domination and profit share domination. It states that all that actually matters for a company is a profit share, and this is where Apple is still the untouchable king. The market share is actually of little significance - despite Android being the wider spread OS, almost all companies except Samsung are having profit troubles and don't even come close to Apple.

So, this guy is talking about how market share is dominated by Android and therefore I concluded that he did not read the article, he's just here to spread the Word of Apple hate.

You're retarded, sure market share for Android is greater and profits are lower than apples, but what mate said was that because of how fast and cheap Android devises are released this will help the Android os and cause apples profit to decline, he didn't say, oh yeah htc is going to be richer than Apple, no fool and plus the bloody article is about Apple going down like they did before, which will happen no doubt about it, unless they buy nokia then they will get rich from everywhere from all the patents that nokia holds

If Apple could develop a holographic projection device before anyone else... then I'll say "hi" to Apple. The way they are right now, I could see Google having something like that first. Keep up with their current pace... the same history will happen.

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